It seems that Capcom Japan considers the swine flu to be a real-life biohazard, as the company has apparently canceled all of its plans for international travel in response to fears of an outbreak. Of the swine flu, not the T-Virus.

Though E3 trucks on in the face of certain apocalypse by bacon flu, Capcom Japan is not so brave as to spit in the face of the nearing end times. According to a spokesperson for the Nordic Game Conference, Capcom's Keiji Inafune has canceled his appearance at the show (which begins tomorrow), due to "restrictions on foreign travel amid fears of an influenza outbreak."

Well then what about E3, where Inafune might play a role in the revealing of the secret unannounced projects that the company's US branch has been teasing for some weeks now (one of them revealed over the weekend), not to mention his expected duties showing off Dead Rising 2, a game he's producing? Capcom says that they're "undecided" on whether or not their Japanese staff will be showing up to the party. US and UK teams are expected to be in attendance, however.

Other major publishers like Activision, EA and Ubisoft have already committed to making it to E3, though they've said that they are "closely monitoring" the situation. E3 organizers the ESA, meanwhile, have stated that the show is "progressing as planned."

So it sounds like everyone but Capcom Japan isn't afraid of this thing. And here I'd thought we'd all gotten over this thing a long time ago, when it magically disappeared from the headlines. Guess someone forwarded this to Capcom Japan.

Bacon flu: You get turned into a bacon piece and wind up eating yourself if not treated.

MOST AWESOME DISEASE EVER.

But being serious: I suppose it's some cause for concern, but cancelling everything seems extreme. I mean, it's not like airports are cancelling all flights because swine flu has killed most of the world.

the flu is serious people are dying from it. the meds are good for 3-4strains of this flu. all but the bird part.

OH NO 100-200 PEOPLE HAVE DIED! THATS TOTALLY WORSE THEN THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO DIE FROM -REGULAR- FLU EVERY YEAR!

PANIC! PANIC! Ahhhh!

I know! this is horseshit, dogshit and whatever else alive that leaves piles of shit everywhere. People are worried about a flu that hasn't even been notorious for deaths, unlike its original counter part? That is like worrying about a fly when you have 50 milion gallons of bug spray: THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!

the flu is serious people are dying from it. the meds are good for 3-4strains of this flu. all but the bird part.

The most I've seen is NHS adverts telling people about washing your hands as we already should. So it hasn't really hit me that much.

the thing is that it will never hit earth like a good old Bubonic plague or Spanish flu because we are far more prepared for that shit here in the 21st century. if we were 100 years backwards though, well lets just say its been nice knowing ya.

The thing is, Japan is REALLY paranoid about the flu, any flu, especially since Tamiflu seems to have weird effects on teenagers here (there was a rash of teenagers going nuts and jumping off buildings after taking Tamiflu a few years ago), and add to this that there was a sudden, and I mean sudden, outbreak of swine flu in the Osaka prefecture--they went from nine cases to 31 to 130 confirmed in a span of three days, and those days were last Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday, so paranoia is in full-out AAAAAAH mode. The company I work at sent out announcements that they were not scheduling demos and stuff and that they might be canceling people's trips abroad (I work at a research facility, and we have people flying in and out of the country all the time), and schools are closing left and right in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures. One of my friends was going to come down from Tokyo to visit me because my acapella groups is performing in Osaka this weekend, and her company actually told her if she came down here to Osaka, she could not go back to work until she had been seen by a doctor first saying she was not sick with the flu (so she's not coming, blah).

One of my coworkers had gone to America for Golden Week (a week-long vacation at the beginning of this month), and when he got back, he was ordered by his boss to wear a surgical mask for a week. That's how paranoid people are.

The flu--the normal flu--is the one thing that the law requires you stay home from schools from if you work as a teacher, and they will routinely close schools if a certain number of students in one grade have the flu. They take it really seriously over here.

The swine flu is more virulent than the normal flu, but it isn't the Spanish flu pandemic.People have died, but due to the same reasons zebras get eaten by lions: old, young, or sick. Of course, the Times points their finger at teenagers, because as we all know, teenagers are disease-ridden beasts who would use cots intended to help sick students for sex.Because as we all know, if kids are going to get it on in school, they must have a bed.(Sorry, that and someone attempting to coin the term, "Mediacene" bothered me.)

The real threat is that it is more dangerous, and it has a vague possibility of mutating into something lethal. Just take care of yourself, and wash your hands like crazy.